Bible Women: Ruth - Part 2

The Book of Ruth

Ruth - Part 2

for Ruth Part 1 go here

In the first part of Ruth, we learned how Ruth came back to Bethelem-Judah with her mother-in-law Naomi after the death of her husband. Ruth was a Moabitess, and Naomi told her to go back to her family and to her land, but  Ruth stated "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:........."(Ruth 1:16) and Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest (In God's providential timing.) Ruth went to glean "in whose sight I shall find grace" and she was led (by the Lord) to glean in the field belonging to a man named Boaz, who was kinsman of Naomi's dead husband.  Boaz asked who Ruth was, and he provided care for her, and asked that she stay in his field through barley and wheat harvest, staying near his lady workers the whole time, instructing the men not to touch her, providing more food for her.  Ruth continued to dwell with Naomi, thus preserving her reputation as a virtuous woman.

When Naomi learned from Ruth that she was gleaning in Boaz's field, Naomi  recognizes that Boaz, as her near kinsman, has the right to marry Ruth and so she instructs Ruth what to do to obtain Boaz as her redeemer.

Ruth is instructed to wash herself, anoint herself, put on her garment and go to the threshing floor but not to make herself known to Boaz until he had finished eating and drinking.  Then, when he laid himself down, she was to go and lie down at Boaz' feet, and when he found her there, he would tell her what she should do.(Ruth 3:4) Ruth told Naomi that "all that thou sayest unto me I will do. And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. (Ruth 3:4-5) Ruth is obedient to Naomi. 

Bible Women: Ruth - Part 1

Ruth - Part 1

In our study of Naomi, we learned that when the Lord brought a famine to the land of Bethlehem-Judah, Naomi went with her husband Elimelech, when he chose to leave his home there  and to travel to the country of Moab,  rather than to stay and trust the Lord to provide for his family.  Elimelech went to "sojourn" which is a temporary journey.  He did not know that he would not return to Bethlehem-Judah. Proverbs 3:5-6 "trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." Moab was a  pagan land with pagan gods, and that fact alone should have kept Elimelech in his own land, with his own people, trusting the Lord to provide for them.

But, "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose". (Romans 8:28) and as the story of Ruth progresses we will see how the Lord used this famine to bring a Gentile woman into the line of the Lord Jesus Christ.

V2 says that when they came to the country of Moab they "continued" there, now more than a "sojourn".  After a time Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons Mahlon and Chileon.  Instead of returning to Bethelem-Judah, they made their own decision to stay in Moab and Mahlon and Chilion married wives of the women of Moab, one named Orpah, the other named Ruth.  Ruth means "beauty". V4 "and they dwelled there about ten years."  then Mahlon and Chileon also died.  The timing of their deaths is an example of God's perfect timing, for it is now that Naomi heard that "the LORD has visited his people in giving them bread." (Ruth 1:6)  We can see from this that Naomi recognizes that it is the LORD who has ended the famine.